Tag Archive
Comfort and Joy
It must be refreshing to know that your life is absolutely meaningless. I’m not talking about your life being meaningless from a religious perspective or because you are such a nothing person that you will never make an impact on anyone. But rather that what you do is limited in influence, even if you’re the […]
A podcast with Ann Louise Bardach, the screenwriter of Dennis Hopper’s Backtrack
Here’s a podcast with Ann Louise Bardach, journalist for The New York Times, Newsweek, Slate, etc., and the screenwriter of Dennis Hopper’s Backtrack, the director’s cut of which I reviewed here. Now Backtrack was an incredibly troubled production, sitting on the shelf for two years before being dumped by its bankrupt distributor in a cut […]
Backtrack: Director’s Cut
The imagery described by Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) in Silence of the Lambs of Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster) where, as an orphaned young girl running away from the farm where she lives, carrying a baby lamb away from inevitable slaughter with her, is etched into society’s cultural mind as much as […]
The Town
When an actor with aspirations to become a director is on the set of a movie he regrets signing up for, does he use it as an excuse to learn what not to do? If it’s a film he does believe in, does he take mental notes on what he should be doing? Or is […]
Somers Town
The ability of some films to knock you into a blissful trance despite the absence of anything substantial occurring on screen is not just a credit to the filmmakers but a nearly unexplainable phenomenon. Jim Jarmusch made Stranger Than Paradise, a movie about nothing people, doing nothing. The scenes are long blackout sketches where the camera rarely, if ever moves, and the dialogue is dull on the surface. And yet, the movie is hilarious. Jarmusch pulled off this same feat in Down By Law, but the droll tricks started to wear thin…
Lookin’ to Get Out vs. Lookin’ to Get Out: Revisionist History Vol. 1
David Fincher’s Alien 3 is the best example of a very flawed film that was improved in a longer version, while still retaining all of those very same flaws. The theatrical cut, running just under two hours, has very little character development. And, therefore, apart from Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ripley, doesn’t make you care about […]
Winner: BEST ONLINE FILM CRITIC, 2010 National Veegie Awards (Vegan Themed Entertainment)
Nominee: BEST NEW PRODUCT, 2011 National Veegie Awards: The Vegan Condom